The Entitled Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Entitled Blu-ray Movie Review

Who are the entitled? Some, all, or none?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 6, 2015

They say that desperate times call for desperate measures, but there's a fine line between "desperate" and "drastic" and especially between "desperate" and "deadly." Director Aaron Woodley's The Entitled focuses on several characters who don't flirt with the line, skip over it, or stand firmly on the other side but who leap over it and get in too deep when they decide to take matters into their own hands and save themselves from a system that's only ever let them down and seems intent on keeping them down, one way or another. It's a dark, sometimes chilling, and not particularly repetitive movie that explores the deeper crises faced by the underprivileged, the unappreciated, and the unwanted but does so in a way that doesn't paint them as heroes or victims but rather people who feel backed into a corner from which they cannot escape without getting a little blood on their hands and money in their bank accounts.

Planning.

Paul (Kevin Zegers) is a well-meaning young adult who cares for the well-being of his sickly mother (Nola Augustson) who has, lately, refused to take her medication because the family cannot afford it. Paul tries to find work and, despite his qualifications, cannot land a job. He pawns off a cherished wristwatch to get his mother another round of pills, but when a foreclosure notice arrives, the family's downfall seems all but inevitable. In his mind, there's only one thing left to do: get the money his family needs at any price. That involves recruiting a couple of social outcasts named Dean (Devon Bostick) and Jenna (Tatiana Maslany) to help him execute a daring kidnapping and ransoming the victims for $1,000,000 each. The victims (John Bregar, Dustin Milligan, and Laura Vandervoort) are taken with little effort and two of their fathers (Ray Liotta and Stephen McHattie), who are vacationing together, receive word of the nab and demand. The third father (Victor Garber) is a late arrival, complicating matters on both ends.

The Entitled is a lot like the recently released Kidnapping Mr. Heineken in that its focus is the depiction of vulnerable, down-and-out people forced, or so they believe, into going against the grain by battling back against a system with the only means they have at their disposal, including violence, kidnapping for ransom, double crosses, and other nefarious bits along the way. Unlike the stale Heineken, The Entitled offers a more accessibly organic story that opens up along all three fronts, following the kidnappers, the kidnapping victims, and the men who are tasked with paying the ransom for their children's safety. The movie, then, allows for a broader exploration and, without spoiling some of the surprises the movie has to offer, some interesting parallels that exist within all three distinct groups and how the situation reveals truths as it evolves through the course of the night. The film follows some standard procedure routine for movies of this sort but never grows stale and continues to evolve as it builds towards some well-constructed and thoughtful twists and turns at the end that add an even darker edge to an already solidly despairing narrative in which there are no real heroes or villains but rather people caught in an unbeatable circumstance, people who choose not the easy or the hard way out but rather the only door they see open to them in their field of view.

Even as the movie works smartly and efficiently with a base, routine plot, it stumbles in terms of raw characterization. The Entitled never quite proves capable of building, or even willing to build, its characters as richly or fully as it should. Beyond Paul and, to a lesser extent, the Ray Liotta and Stephen McHattie characters, the film never manages to inject either the victims or Paul's two companions as anything more than stock players working necessary angles to push the movie forward. Victor Garber's Bob, who is the last major player to arrive on the scene, serves only to propel the brewing disconnect between McHattie's Cliff and Liotta's Richard. But the film at least finds its centers in its three best characters, all of whom share more in common than their superficial actions and places in life would suggest. The movie explores these connections, often subtly, to satisfaction, and it's from their respective angles of despair -- varying degrees and varieties of despair but nonetheless shared qualities -- that the film finds its depth and purpose. The performances are solid, too, with each actor brining a tangible life and, when necessary, darkness to the characters that appear to capture more than the script seems to suggest, particularly concerning the secondary players and Devon Bostick's Dean in particular. Kevin Zegers is terrific in the lead; he defines the movie's moody, brooding angles and nails his character's confident desperation extraordinarily well, from the earliest interactions with his mother to the final reveals. His is the best-written character in the film and its anchor, not so much undergoing any metamorphoses but certainly bringing plenty of dynamic intensity to the movie at every stage.

The Entitled Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Entitled's 1080p transfer isn't bad by any accounts, but it shows some room for improvement. Generally, the image is fine and, sometimes, borderline striking. The HD video source material leaves basics a little flat and pasty -- skin is never defined down to the nitty-gritty level -- but raw textural definition is laudable and overall clarity is strong. Brighter scenes fare better than the film's many moodier, lightly and warmly lit scenes and reveal some strong exterior textures such as leaves, tree trunks, and stone and brick work. But even in its darkest corners, the basics tend to impress. Colors are pleasant when the light allows them to appear in full glory, while lower light interiors tend towards warmer shades of red, orange, and yellow. Black levels are disappointing, ranging from disturbingly dull and washed out to slightly crushed, more often than not favoring the former. Light noise interferes at times but heavy compression artifacts are nonexistent. This is a good all-around image, not the best the format has seen and far from the worst. Most audiences should be satisfied outside of the bad blacks.

The Entitled Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Entitled arrives on Blu-ray with a good nuts-and-bolts sort of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The main focus throughout the film is dialogue, and Anchor Bay's track presents the spoken word with lifelike clarity and attention to detail throughout, with consistent center-front placement. Music is delivered with a healthy full-stage posture that sees it merge into the surrounds. Basic clarity impresses in score, but heavier background dance club beats fail to find much in the way of heft and sonic vibrancy. Minor woodland ambience drifts through the stage in various outdoor scenes, with chirping birds and insects helping to give shape to some key locations. A few gunshots are a little short on pure power but do ring out with a nice, natural echoing sensation.

The Entitled Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Entitled contains a featurette, an alternate ending, and a couple of trailers.

• The Entitled: Behind the Scenes (1080p, 11:20): A brief overview of the production's history, film construction, plot themes and specifics, characters, casting, the film's technical construction, and more.
• Alternate Ending (1080p, 4:12).
• Also on Blu-ray Disc (1080p): Trailers for Daydream Nation and Frozen.

The Entitled Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Entitled might play around with some basic themes of socio-economic repression on one hand and basic kidnapping movie tropes on the other, but it manages to blend them into a convincingly dark world that's host to several strongly developed characters but, on the other hand, a handful of flat characters who only serve to propel the plot. It's uneven in that regard but the good far exceeds the bad, resulting in a moderately intense, well-crafted, nicely acted Thriller that's a rare DTV film that's better than that label suggests. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of The Entitled features good video and audio. Supplements are fairly thin. Recommended.